LinkedIn Networking Workshop Is Mandatory!

Who Should Attend?

Join a limited-number of professionals who are ready to learn how using LinkedIn properly with the right strategies and tactics can change your business and future to win. This LinkedIn Networking workshop will bring together participants from all levels of professions, so don't worry about being out-paced - the time is now for getting everyone up to speed on this powerful channel. Don't miss this opportunity to prepare yourself and your organization for owning the business niche in your space. Start converting your LinkedIn exclusive process into bottom-line improvements in any industry. This workshop is ideal for business professionals across all industries.

I have always written about small business entrepreneurship and this LinkedIn Networking Workshop should be a Mandatory attendance if you are serious about growing your business and stepping out front of your competition. Here is a workshop I recommend and know the trainer personally being held in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada for July. Register now and get an early bird discount: http://www.eventbrite.ca/event/5905464403/WSI/58856021251  - Ray MacNeil

This is a great seminar happening in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada and I highly recommend this for business owners and people who want to impress their boss with how they grew market share through unique LinkedIn marketing insights: http://www.eventbrite.ca/event/5905464403/WSI/58856021251

MacNeil Sales Consulting and Contracting

Building on my Do's and Don'ts list of business.  For example:  Do what is in your control to prevent potential failure. If all else fails, move on sooner not later. Don't ignore the signs of potential failure. As entrepreneurs we have a tendency (I'm guilty) to hang on to our passion and our dream of grand success with egotistical blinders on. The result may be to go down alone with the ship yelling "But she can be saved!"

Today I continue to build my new business, MacNeil Sales MSCC, leveraging my sales and franchise experience helping others find the right franchise. To help my clients understand a franchise and a franchisors selection process.

I'm also helping a local and established new home builder find investors for his next phase of new home construction in the London and Woodstock, Ontario, Canada area.

As an entrepreneur I'm open to hear how I can help your company as a contractor review your sales system, your franchise system and provide recommendations on building a winning sales team.

If you are interested to learn more about how I can provide insights to your business, or interested in a franchise or a home investment, send me a message.

MacNeil Sales Consulting and Contracting, MSCC

It has been some time now since I last wrote in my blog and I suspect I'm the only reader.  Well I'm back. My last year has been a challenge for my career. I could point fingers but instead I prefer to move forward, rebuild, survive and thrive. I plan to build my new business, MacNeil Sales Consulting and Contracting, MSCC, and take what I learned over my last 20 plus years as an entrepreneur and franchise sales executive to help others find their new franchise business. Or for others who prefer to put their money to work and invest with an establish new home builder who is looking to build another successful phase of new homes in the London, Ontario, Canada area. I can also help existing businesses build a sales team. improve a sales team's performance or assist your HR team with the recruiting of top sales professionals.

I'm open for business and open for discussions. I look forward to getting back to more regular posts in my blog and building a loyal readership and referral base.

What you should know before hiring professional Dismissal Specialists

It’s the one thing no employer likes dealing with. Despite pop culture characterisations of sadistic bosses relishing in the humiliation of downtrodden, soon to be ex employees, the reality is dismissing staff is a task few employers look forward to.

Not only is dismissing an employee tough on the nerves, it’s also legally something of a minefield. Thankfully, the dark days of old- where one might be fired for such outrages as wearing ugly ties, being a woman, or taking a sick day- are over, and the threat of arbitrary dismissal is not something most of us have to deal with in our working lives. The downside for employers is that when a staff member is bringing the team down in one way or another, dismissing them is a far from simple affair.

My personal experiences as a retail employee have given me a surprisingly deep insight into the complexities of dismissals. I’ve watched, gobsmacked, as thieving, unreliable employees blithely drain the company of resources and credibility, while crying foul at the slightest hint of dismissal and threatening legal action. I’ve seen staff who clearly have no interest in the job, fail to turn up on time, and treat customers with contempt, sue for unfair dismissal when it all catches up with them. It’s great to have safeguards in place to ensure good, hard workers are not sacked at the whim of tyrannical managers. But it certainly does make weeding out the bad seeds a more complicated matter.

For more information about conducting dismissals the right way, visit this Australian company who have the expertise: http://www.dismissals.com.au

My guest author of this post: Danielle McAnn of Melbourne, Australia

Doritos Has Great Cross Marketing Strategy

You may have recently seen the Doritos commercial where two new flavour chips are created and we, the consumer, gets to write the ending of the commercial. An ending that will eliminate one flavour in favour of the other. You write the ending online and then amass votes as I am doing in my blog, my twitter and my facebook. The combination of a TV ad with an online site going viral through the social network is a great cross marketing strategy. Check out my ending on vote for my ending: Click Here to vote.

How Unique Is Your Business idea?

I was recently in Germany and met with a new franchisor of a fast food concept. I actually met with many new fast food franchisors. They all had what they believed to be something unique and special to differentiate them from the hundreds of other fast food franchise opportunities. Sure, the food was good, for fast food. The marketing was slick. The store layout and look had some thought behind the finished product. But, so what! I've see it all before. Call me crazy but shouldn't a unique idea have little to no competition. Shouldn't a unique idea have the potential for high growth. And, wouldn't it be nice to enjoy, at a minimum, nice profit margins with a quick return on my investment. The idea of working 6 to 7 days a week and long hours just so I can keep more money in my pocket does not excite me. Call me lazy but, I like the idea of working towards fewer hours in the business with the business continuing its growth and still enjoying time for a much improved lifestyle. If you ask does this exist? Sure it does. It is called Digital Marketing and WSI is the leader in this industry with a franchise opportunity in most cities and most countries around the globe.

What is a franchise? It is a proven system with training and support that allows someone from a different background and coming from a different industry to enter into a new business and industry with little to no experience in their desired industry of choice. If you have been watching from the sidelines others take the step into business ownership and you have watch others succeed in the Internet and presumed you missed this opportunity because of a generation gap... then think again. WSI is looking for business executives for their Digital Marketing Franchise. Perhaps, at a minimum, I have left you with some fast food for thought. If you find you have some interest to learn more then contact me by email at: rmacneil@wsidigitalmarketing.com

Fresh Content Is A Challenge

I have not been active in my blog for a very long time and as a result my page ranking has dropped in Google. If you are running a business it is difficult to keep your blog active daily with fresh content that is relevant and topical. But you must if you want to enjoy success on the search engines. On the internet; text is the 'bomb'. Stale text is the 'bum'. My best advice is to have a dedicated blogger for your organization. This person can solicit content from your relevant departments or look to outside help. For example; WSI Digital Marketing can bring this service to your company. Blogs rule if done right.

N-Viro - A Good idea which so many people dont even know exists

N-Viro International Corporation develops and licenses its technology to municipalities and private companies. Their patented processes use lime and/or mineral-rich, combustion byproducts to treat, pasteurize, immobilize and convert wastewater sludge and other bio-organic wastes into biomineral agricultural and soil-enrichment products with real market value. The company has generated sales in excess of $40 million dollars, since its initial public offering in October of 1993, which was underwritten by Robertson Stephens, Raymond James, Oppenheimer & Co., and Paine Webber.
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Travelling in the 21st Century

I'm in Estonia and then travelling to Latvia, Lithuania and then a few days at the end in Frankfurt, Germany on business and pleasure for 2 weeks. I'm amazed at how easy it is for me to continue doing business with my office at home. The internet has reached many parts of the world with high speed reaching even remote parts of the world. The time zone difference allows me to act on questions and issues while my customers sleep and when I work in the night while they are awake.

Another aspect of the world is that business is the same the world over. We all want to grow our business and do it with the most cost effective marketing methods available today. Internet marketing is growing as more and more of us use the internet and with the ease of access to the internet for our customers growing globally, the internet has become the wrapper of the worlds economy.

We are and will continue to grow to be a digital world. I booked my airline tickets online. I reserved my rooms online. I even made last minute changes online. I stayed in touch with my business online and even with my family online (facebook). And now with you through my blog and Twitter. If you are in business you should already know that the internet is where your customers are and as a result you need to be marketing to them online. But do it right and hire a professional who can build a long benefiting online marketing strategy. Check out this offer from WSI: Click Here

WSI #1 Internet Services Franchise in 2010 - 10 Years Running

WSI Corporate has released a press release sharing this newsworthy announcement about their 2010 Entrepreneur Magazine Franchise 500 Rankings...
Franchise 500® rank:

#56 (2010); #57 (2009); #46 (2008); #42 (2007); #46 (2006);

Top Homebased Franchises:

#13 (2010); #12 (2009); #9 (2008); #12 (2007); #9 (2006);

America's Top Global Franchises:

#49 (2010); #49 (2009); #26 (2008); #36 (2007); #6 (2006);

Sick Kids Foundation

My significant other Kathy and I have started to support Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as one of our Top 3 Charities. Sick Kids in Toronto has a history of not only specializing with the best research and doctors in the world but also the best care of children from around the world. We provide monthly a financial support and now we have launched a fundraiser website. We started with a very low and achievable goal of $200. Our hope is that with your help and the help of our family and friends that this goal is proven to be way too low. Check out our site and help the kids if you can: click here

A Cure For The Common Cold Is Found: 'Cold-FX'

The inventors of Cold-FX would never make the claim they have cured the common cold but I will. I don't have an army of lawyers telling me what I can or can not say. Bottom line is; I use the product and it works.


I started reluctantly and heard the many testimonials around me from family, friends and even the paid hockey celebrities but I did not listen. I suspect many of you will not listen to me and that is okay. The reality is that with a healthy diet, exercise and using Cold-FX as a preventative measure it will work.


I eat healthy, I exercise once in a while and recently started feeling the cold coming on i.e. sore muscles, sneezing, watery eyes, etc. I finally gave in and over one weekend the symptoms were gone and never came back. the amazing thing is that many in my office had the same symptoms and yet it lasted for weeks and in some cases they got better and yet it came back again. However, not with me. I was cured.


I will continue with Cold-FX as part of my daily vitamin intake routine and hope that my testimonial helps others remain healthy to keep running their business as owners must. If you have a great real life Cold-FX story I would love to hear about it. Add your story as a comment to this post.

Paulo Coelho And Another Christmas Gift to His Readers

I received a special Christmas email today from Paulo Coelho author of 'The Alchemist' which is one of my favorite books listed at the bottom of my blog. Paulo never forgets to send a special story at Christmas to his fans. We can learn from this in business and that is to never forget your customers at Christmas. All your customers, those small and great and those in your pipeline who will become your customers. Enjoy the story:


The music coming from the house

Paulo Coelho

On Christmas Eve, the king invited the prime minister to join him for their usual walk together. He enjoyed seeing the decorations in the streets, but since he didn’t want his subjects to spend too much money on these just to please him, the two men always disguised themselves as traders from some far distant land.
They walked through the centre of the city, admiring the lights, the Christmas trees, the candles burning on the steps of the houses, the stalls selling gifts, and the men, women and children hurrying off to celebrate a family Christmas around a table laden with food.
On the way back, they passed through a poorer area, where the atmosphere was quite different. There were no lights, no candles, no delicious smells of food about to be served. There was hardly a soul in the street, and, as he did every year, the king remarked to the prime minister that he really must pay more attention to the poor in his kingdom. The prime minister nodded, knowing that the matter would soon be forgotten again, buried beneath the day-to-day bureaucracy of budgets to be approved and discussions with foreign dignitaries.
Suddenly, they heard music coming from one of the poorest houses. The hut was so ramshackle and the rotten wooden timbers so full of cracks, that they were able to peer through and see what was happening inside. And what they saw was utterly absurd: an old man in a wheelchair apparently crying, a shaven-headed young woman dancing, and a young man with sad eyes shaking a tambourine and singing a folk song.
‘I’m going to find out what they’re up to,’ said the king.
He knocked. The music stopped, and the young man came to the door.
‘We are merchants in search of a place to sleep. We heard the music, saw that you were still awake, and wondered if we could spend the night here.’
‘You can find shelter in a hotel in the city. We, alas, cannot help you. Despite the music, this house is full of sadness and suffering.’
‘And may we know why?’
‘It’s all because of me.’ It was the old man in the wheelchair who spoke. ‘I’ve spent my life teaching my son calligraphy, so that he could one day get a job as a palace scribe. But the years have passed and no post has ever come up. And then, last night, I had a stupid dream: an angel appeared to me and asked me to buy a silver goblet because, the angel said, the king would be coming to visit me. He would drink from the goblet and give my son a job.
‘The angel was so persuasive that I decided to do as he said. Since we have no money, my daughter-in-law went to the market this morning to sell her hair so that we could buy that goblet over there. The two of them are doing their best to get me in the Christmas spirit by singing and dancing, but it’s no use.’
The king saw the silver goblet, asked to be given a little water to quench his thirst and, before leaving, said to the family:
‘Do you know, we were talking to the prime minister only today, and he told us that an opening for a palace scribe would be announced next week.’
The old man nodded, not really believing what he was hearing, and bade farewell to the strangers. The following morning, however, a royal proclamation was read out in all the city streets; a new scribe was needed at court. On the appointed day, the audience room at the palace was packed with people eager to compete for that much-sought-after post. The prime minister entered and asked everyone there to prepare their paper and pens:
‘Here is the subject of the composition: Why is an old man weeping, a shaven-headed woman dancing, and a sad young man singing?’
A murmur of disbelief went round the room. No one knew how to tell such a story, apart, that is, from the shabbily dressed young man sitting in one corner, who smiled broadly and began to write.

Based on an Indian story.

Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa

'Inch by Inch Life Is a Cinch...' - Mac Anderson

I love this 'Simple Truth' from Mac Anderson:

When I was a freshman in college I learned an unforgettable lesson.
I was having a rough week when there was a lot to do and very little time to do it. I was overwhelmed. I panicked.
That night a friend stopped by my dorm room. When I told him my problem, he said, ?Mac, I'll share something with you that my grandmother told me a few years ago. She said to always remember: ?Inch by inch, life's a cinch. Yard by yard, life is hard.??
I said, ?Bob, come on. Here I am drowning in work and your lifeline is a quote from your grandmother. Come on!?
After he left, however, those twelve little words kept dancing in my head. I took out a piece of notebook paper and listed all the things I had to do in the next three days. That night I began knocking them off one by one.
Three days later I took out that paper and marked through the last thing on the list. It felt great! And then I took out another piece of paper and wrote down the words: ?Inch by inch, life's a cinch. Yard by yard, life is hard.? I then folded the paper and put it in my wallet. As many of you know, I've been collecting quotes ever since.
You see, success doesn't come cascading like Niagara Falls; it comes one drop at a time through short-term, realistic goals.
Experts on motivation disagree on a lot of things, but one thing they all agree on is that your levels of motivation are directly tied to your expected probabilities of success. In other words, if you believe you can do something (the goals are realistic), you're likely to be highly motivated. If, however, you think you can't (because the goals are unrealistic) your motivation level falls greatly.
The lesson here is to continue to dream big dreams, but realize that the short-term goals that take you to the next plateau are the real keys to success

Cold-FX Teaches Business Owners About Prevention

Is Cold-FX the cure for the most common illness, the common cold? Maybe. The makers of Cold-FX don't make the claim to cure the cold. They in fact have applied simple logic to this age old problem. The same problem that persists business owners and turns most of us into 'firefighters'. We run around the office in complete turmoil, always busy but never getting anything done, trying to solve urgent problems...'firefighting'. When we firefight we tend to ignore what is really important in our business and that is; working on our plan.

What does this have to do with Cold-FX? Plenty.

Cold-FX is a remedy that works on the age old Ben Franklin quote; 'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.'

Cold-FX claim to 'boost your immune system to stop, shorten or reduce cold and flu symptoms'. And from the people I know who use the product every day, it works. Why does it work? Because it doesn't wait for the cold and then try and cure the problem. It has a plan that when followed prevents the cold. Do you see the similarities to business and where I'm going now?

How many small and medium sized business owners, the true entrepreneurs, have a business plan? A Marketing plan of any kind? Not many, based on the many I have spoke to over the years.

Think of your business plan as your road map to success. Or, as your ounce of prevention...your Cold-FX. Make sure your plan lays out what you want to achieve in growth over the next 5 years. Start at a high level and then drill down to the point where you have a daily plan. If you don't know how to do this then source out some local expertise and get it done. Check with your local Chamber of Commerce for direction to perhaps resources or someone on their membership roster.

Sure you will have fires to put out occasionally but now you will be able to prioritize what is urgent, what is important and what can wait based on your plan.

Make Money As A Blogger With Bloggerwave

I have just been introduced to this new Blogger Community that brings advertisers together with Bloggers. If you promote an advertiser you get paid. Sounds good to me so while I learn more you can as well. The following is their ad and if you want to go to their opportunity site click here bloggerwave:



'Do you have a blog and want to make some extra money? Then bloggerwave gives you the opportunity. Bloggerwave is aiming to be Europe's biggest advertising media on blogs and you can help us grow so more and more jobs will come.'